Mohan Raja’ returns with this highly anticipated movie after the critically acclaimed and blockbuster “Thani Oruvan”.produced by 24AM Studios.
The story of VELAIKARAN is cleverly crafted to begin with, and the strong undertones cannot be missed despite them not being loud and preachy. It is definitely the first half that outscores the second half and that affects the film on the whole. A “slowdown” in the second half drags the film a bit. The first half is entertaining and builds up to a nice platform. Raja provides a lot of freshness in his screenplay and has to be appreciated for delving into a few details to make the film acceptable and understandable to most sections of the society.
For Siva Karthikeyan this is his biggest venture and yet it is less “massy”. Kudos to him for playing a normal man that is unheard of in a “message film”. Fahadh Fasil is natural in his role while Nayanthara plays an unimportant role, but sure would bring in the crowd despite looking a bit jaded. The rest of the cast play their characters well.
Ramji behind the camera dishes out very good visuals, while Anirudh has already scored big with his songs and does a decent job behind the scenes. Editing by Anthony could have been a little tighter while dialogues are as good as you can get in a Raja’s film. Direction by Raja works.
VELAIKARAN could have easily gone the mass way, but Raja keeps it strictly to his script and that means that the viewer might feel underwhelmed. Yet that is why VELAIKARAN scores for behaving like a VELAIKARAN and not a boss. Raja should be encouraged and appreciated for making films like these that have a strong social message that does not just involve the hero taking the cudgels but also the society as a movement invoking their conscience.
VELAIKARAN – VETTRI!
3/5
B.U.Shreesha
